I tuned in to Fox News for the first time in months to see how they were reacting to the health care ruling, but they decided to do a lengthy interview with Rupert Murdoch instead. Pretty clever. The Corner is filled with their spin. “The ruling turns ObamaCare into the biggest middle class tax cut in history.” “We won on the Commerce Clause!” “Let’s repeal the whole thing.” “Now, the only way to fix this is to vote for Romney.”
Here are the opinions (pdf).
I’m relieved, and I don’t even like the fucking mandate.
Current feelings:
policy standpoint: relief
partisan standpoint: schadenfreudtastic
It’s probably already been erased but I’d be interested to see the written statement Obama prepared in the event the law was overturned. I think it would have made villager ears bleed profusely. I think he would have come out very very tough on this.
I think Roberts blinked.
Really? Why would he? Roberts is probably now more hated among the wingnuts than the President.
People are speculating the tax business is his cover. He gets to tell republicans it’s just a tax so they can very well cut it if they like.
Yes, cut that tax! It will leave intact the prohibition on excluding preexisting conditions, there will be no profit in for-profit health insurance, and we will by necessity expand medicare. I am ok with that.
Very relieved. I’m one of those people who would have likely lost his health coverage this week. I run a small company with my partner, who suffered a massive stroke in 2009. He has probably cost UHC $2 million since then and it will continue forever this way. Had the law been struck down and rescission and pre-existing conditions been made legal again, there’s no doubt that UHC would drop us today. And then I’d be out on the individual market and my wife has a pre-existing condition so we’d be screwed, my partner and his family would go bankrupt, and a very sick guy could lose this battle.
Bravo, Obama! I’m proud to have you as our president!
Because of this ruling, there’s a chance that in a few years I can stop working for the man and pursue working for myself without having to lose my health care.
And I believe that many states, mine included, are likely to build on this in the future, much more easily than starting from scratch.
I feel pretty good about that.
Actually, I’m kind of stunned. I was mentally primed for the SC to blow it up and to see wingnuts dancing in the streets on my drive home from work.
Doing some phone banking tonight with OFA. It should be real interesting to see if this comes up in the conversations.
Now that the doctrine that the government has a responsibility to ensure health care for all is unassailably established in the law, I feel like arguing that there are better ways of making that happen.
Do it loudly. I think that was part of the plan.
Tomorrow.
Today, I’m doing my happy dance.
Yeah, I’ve been bopping to Husker Du in happiness.
If you listen to the lyrics it’s depressing, but the music makes you want to jump up and down.
Meh, it’s a tax that nobody ever has to actually pay. It’ll be fine.
Enjoy your vacation.
Great!
Conservatives all voted like conservatives on the commerce clause.
With a conservative majority, how could they NOT win on that narrow issue?
But a major playor on the conservative side found a way to bold to the liberals and uphold the ACA.
Contra Obama’s remarks months ago, Roberts decided the penalty you pay if you don’t buy in as the mandate requires is a tax, and no one can dispute the congressional power to tax.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, the Supremes having done their little ditty and withdrawn from the stage, we now return you to actual, more or less democratic politics as the GOP prepares to try to kill the mandate legislatively before the fall.
Relieved and surprised. I actually had a dream last night about being at the supreme court when the ruling was made today, so I guess I was pretty concerned. Glad that Roberts is not the complete tool that I thought him to be.
Totally stunned.
happy, but stunned
So since the ruling didn’t go the way that majority of the village and GOP thought, now the meme is going to cling to the SCOTUS calling this a “tax” on the middle class and all the tweets and statements of the GOP are all including this line almost verbatim.
What I think is funny is that last night Romney was talking all tough he went so far as to say he bet it was gonna be a tough night in the WH. My bet, tonight is gonna be a tough night for Romney.
I’m actually hopeful that I won’t be watching any more of my friends die too young from diseases that could have been treatable if caught early. I’ve buried too many too close to my heart from late-stage cancers in the last couple years – they had no insurance coverage and got the diagnoses too late. It will be good to enjoy what the rest of the civilized world has enjoyed for ages – universal healthcare. Time to breathe a few sighs of relief.
Very on point!
Me, I feel like this will allow me to construct a life with less fear.
Relieved, but wary. This law is a major advance in the cause of, well, humanity, and as far as it goes I count this decision as a victory, and in all likelihood this measure will, as with SocSec and Medicare, expand over time to provide better coverage while embedding the notion of healthcare as a basic human right into the American consciousness.
But the way the individual votes in SCOTUS broke out makes me wonder what other ideological eddies are swirling about beneath the surface. I don’t like the mandates either, but when the public option was in play it was a different story. I’m reminded in a disturbing way of Huey Long’s proposed reforms leading to the New Deal, only in this case I’m not sure what deal we’ll receive on balance. A lot remains to be seen.
Hugely relieved – both personally (it likely saved me from having to move to Canada) and politically.
We’re not out of the woods by a long shot – Republicans will keep trying to kill this, and if they win the White House and Congress in the fall, they’ll almost certainly succeed. But this undercuts a good chunk of Romney’s argument (the constitutionality), plus all the news coverage has done more to educate Americans on what the ACA actually does than a couple years’ worth of Obama’s lame efforts.
As many have noted, the ACA is not nearly enough. But it will save a lot of lives, and it may help make additional reforms more likely. So a good, and unexpected, win all the way around.
Lastly, what does it say about our expectations for the Roberts SCOTUS that a ruling many thought a year ago would be a slam dunk on the legal merits, squeaks past 5-4 on a narrow interpretation, and everyone is so surprised and (on the left) happy? It says to me that the surprise isn’t rooted in the law’s constitutionality, but that even one Supreme Court conservative out of five actually didn’t decide based on political ideology, and it wasn’t the one most would have expected. This ruling does very little to challenge the overall cynicism toward SCOTUS’ lack of impartiality.
I just love it that a Bush appointee saved Obamacare. That kinda says it all for me.
I think and mandate is a god damn abomination, but for the first time since probably inauguration day I feel like there’s a reason not to give up.
Now can we call it Baucuscare? Maybe Romneycare? And move on to Medicare for All?
Just like the righties do. Get your win, then immediately start pushing on the next one. In our case since pushing this further left will make life better for everyone, we can do so with a clear conscience of course.
Unfortunately the whole won’t even take effect until 2014 or maybe never if the GOP wins this year.
I cried. And then I did a cheer at my desk hands in the air.
My oldest son (who can now stay on our plan) texted me “fucking right!” And a second later “now we work for nov 6”
For your edification and enjoyment: